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Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in MaineScholarship to Attend Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine.
The UW Arts Faculty raised funds that established a dedicated Fund at Haystack which provides one scholarship for a UW student to attend a two week workshop at Haystack School each summer.
Typical courses include ceramics, wood, glass, fibers, metal, drawing, paper, printmaking, artist's books and mixed media.
The Scholarship pays for tuition, room and board for a 2-week workshop. You are responsible only for getting yourself there and back.
In order to apply for the Haystack scholarship you will need to submit the following to Teri Van Genderen in an envelope marked Haystack:
1) 8 JPEGs of your work on a CD/DVD (labeled with your name, medium used, dimensions.)
2) A separate image information sheet with the same information
3) First and second choice of workshop
4) A cover letter that explains your choices of workshop and why the workshops fit your specific creative directions
5) Resume
The deadline for the materials is Monday March 10th 4pm to the Art Office Front Desk.

September 03, 2007

Undergraduate Reviews of Exhibitions and Lectures

Comments

I attended the lector by Jason Reblando on March 6th at 5:00pm. I thought his work was very interesting. He was clearly very focused on the idea of home and being forced out of ones home. I found his narrative approach to photography interesting and captivating. I like how all of his bodies of works though distinctive seemed to have a common thread. I thought his style of portraiture was very effective and I like how he included the architecture of the scene to help tell the story. I could see how his work is more idealogical then technical but I find that to be a good aspect. I really loved the images he did where there were 3 photos side by side. They looked like they were taken at the same time but each just a slightly different frame. I love how the frame interacted with the images and his choice to leave that bit of white rather than put the images together. I also really like how the power point slides itself had a bit of texture to them. They looked like real paper this just exemplified his works and made it feel cohesive.
I thought his lesson plans looked interesting and they were well thought out. I also liked how they could be applied to any skill level. The work of his students was varied and really good. I think it is important that the work of your students does not reflect your own work or vision. I feel that he did a good job letting his students take the instruction in any way they wanted. I especially like the water portrait that was done for the lighting assignment. It was very well framed and the colors were amazing. I also liked how he encouraged his students to dig deeper into meaning and think about how phrases and self perception affect their lives. I thought some very powerful work was created by his students since he gave them the freedom to explore.
I like how he later incorporated tarps into his work because it was a phenomena in the Philippines. As for the Q & A parts I was a bit confused by some of his answers. I think he was trying to touch on as much as possible since a-lot of the questions were all encompassing. I think he handled it well and made sure to keep it light. I really liked his response to the student question. I also found that the shoots of the products in a studio very different form his overall body of work but I thought it did it in a very pleasing way. I loved the background he chose and the way it interacted with the objects. Overall, very interesting and great work!

On Wednesday the 21st of February, I attended Sarah Stankey’s show called CAMP. I love the way the work was presented. The wood accents on the wall behind the hung work made it feel so deliberate and like she thought of the whole space while creating her exhibit. I also like the way she chose to hang the photographs. The shadowboxes feel was very calming and reminiscent of nature. The shadowboxes did did not seem force the work into a frame. It made the photographs have room to continue your mind. I also loved the wood chair in the middle it made the space feel inviting. The patches of grass made it feel cohesive. I feel she did a great job bringing the nature outside into this very white plain gallery space. I love it all! It felt very designed.
I decided to go through the gallery without reading the artist statement, since that is what I thought Sarah wanted. I am glad I did that since I could make my own guesses about the work and what she was trying to portray. The images of the male at the time seemed out of place for me. I was not sure if we were to find him sympathetic or destructive. Now having read the artist statement it makes a lot more sense to me. However, I did like wondering what it was about him and why he was there. It kept me very engaged. One of my favorite photographs was the one of the tree with the light coming through its branches. The lighting in that photo was amazing. Most of the time images like that give a eerie vibe, however, the bright green of the leaves and the lightness of the fog and sun made it youthful and exciting to look at. I also really enjoyed the one of the person in the water. It felt like a moment frozen in time. I think the gradient of blue form the sky to the lake was very beautiful. This also makes the color of the waves and figure stand out more. All of the work was really great.
The one thing I did notice was the the one wall seemed a bit more visual dynamic than the others. It was such a large focal point and had so many great pieces on it that the other walls felt a bit bare compared to it. Though I do feel she did a good job of continuing the dark wood with some variation in the other wall. Great choice having the artist statement outside of the gallery space. It did truly convey the beauty of nature and humans impact on it. The use of textual add ons and grass made the space feel as immersive and very intentional. This was a wonderful exhibit!

Andrew and Alex Lichtenstein
Marked, Unmarked, Remembered: A Geography of American Memory

The photo series (book) is about the unsettling parts of U.S. history that we don’t talk about, particularly about the violent aspects of resistance and racism towards African Americans and Native Americans. Historian Alex Lichtenstein talked about wanting to give this part of America’s history a “visual voice”, which is where Andrew Lichtenstein comes into play.
The premise of the photo series was to allow you to imagine in your head these historical moments and I believe many of his photos allow your mind to recreate these scenarios in your mind. Especially the landscape images because there are no recognizable figures that fill in the memory for you. Andrew spoke about how a place doesn’t have to mean until we give it a meaning through particular actions. Without the context of America’s history, his photos would mean nothing. They would just look like regular old landscape photos that everyone’s seen before. But, the fact that some type of historical event had happened in that area makes it more important, pertaining to the photo.
There was also one question I thought was interesting that came up during the Q&A section. Someone asked him why his photos were in black and white. Alex Lichtenstein enjoyed the fact that they were in black and white but Andrew wished he had done them in color. Andrew’s reasonings were “selfish” because that he said that he loves printing black and white film and that this allowed him to do his own thing on his own time. He also wanted to stray away from the editorial photographs he usually takes as well, but he wished he had done this series in color because it would have brought these issues up in a more contemporary context. Alex, on the other hand, liked the fact that these photos were in black and white because it makes it seem like it is just in the right context. By printing these photos in an old-fashioned way, it makes you kind of remember the historical aspects of our nation and to think back on those times.

Stankey’s exhibit portrays nature in an ethereal way. When you first walk in, you see a lot of white space that allows you to take a deep breath between each photo. The wooden frames also contribute to the idea of nature as a nurturing object. It holds the picture and lets it stand on its own through its own unique characteristics.
After reading Stankey’s description of this project, I thought she followed through well on what she was trying to portray. She wanted to represent nature as something that still needs to be cared for and as something greater than human kind. The males in the image (all mankind) are shown as accessories to nature, as they should be. She makes the comment that we should only observe and admire; we should only interact with nature by viewing its beautiful qualities instead of claiming nature as our own. We should not take anything, we should only preserve of what is left. By taking a self-discovering journey through nature, we connect with it on a more personal level.
The colors in the photo are vibrant, yet still earthy. I appreciate that she preserved all of these natural colors. Sometimes it is hard to really experience what these moments look like when we capture it on camera, but Stankey has given each image a life of their own through a careful editing style. The highlights in the images are what really bring about the celestial tones. One image in particular (image of a tree with backlit lighting), brings about an ominous presence to it. This may be due to the light escaping through the different trees. It seems as if the rays of light are traveling on their own path and there is no end to their journey. The tree in the middle is the main character of the story. We can see a light airy effect surround the tree which brings about a heavenly aspect to the image. Usually we see angels surrounded by a cloud of air and in this case, it surrounds the tree.
The majority of Stankey’s photos are close-ups of the different aspects of nature such as the snow on the ground, the bark on the tree, or just leaves on stems. She does a good job on focusing in on a particular characteristic of nature as a whole. By creating this clear focus, we are forced to be patient and look at one thing at a time instead of to look at everything at once. It is a nice break from the over-consuming technology that we see everyday.
Overall, Sarah Stankey did a good job on making people aware of how we should treat the earth instead of how we currently treat it.

This exhibition consisted of works from both Terrence Campagna and Tom Jones, though each had different style and focus of work. Campagna's work was a series of digital photographs of reflections in puddles of water. I was intrigued by the playfulness of the images and how they engaged my mind. At the beginning the images deceive the viewer into thinking the photos are upside-down. The images have a careful focus on the details that are reflected on the ground. Images were carefully compositioned and well thought through. The titles of the work were the coordinates of the place that the image was taken, though I do not think the coordinates add significant meaning to the photos. There were no details in the images that would underline the difference in location of the image, and to me that was the beauty of the work, that the global location of the image is not significant, rather the details and the colors are important part of the photos.

The second half of the exhibition was the series Remnants by Tom Jones. This series is a compilation of etched glass and digital photos of casino carpets. Though at the beginning one might think of the images as simple photos of casino carpets, Jones' social and cultural narrative and the pairing of etched glass transforms the photos. The grouping of the images and the etchings brought life to both stills and created a back-and-forth conversation between the two piece to highlight how Whites have exploited and stereotyped Native Americans. One fascinating element of Jones' work was the effect of light on the etched glass. Light creates shadows on the background, deceiving the viewer as if there is a sketch behind them.

Disruptive Perspectives is an exhibition that explores gender, sexuality, and identity. It took place at MoCP in Chicago. The only medium used in this exhibition was photography. The artists used photography to "articulate an expansive range of identities that cannot be sufficiently characterized using simplistic binaries." Rather than rendering identity as fixed, these works consider gender and sexuality as "negotiations that are shaped by human psyche, the passage of time, and the complex relationship between self and other."

My favorite was an installation by Barbara Davatz called, "As Time Goes By”. She started her series in 1982 and worked on it for 30 years. She started it when she met the couple Nicola and Kurt and was interested in their similar appearance. The became “very curious about the diverse biographical and physical changes” that “could have occurred in the meantime and gaining confidence in the potential strength of the new work.” She followed the couples as they got married, found new partner, or had children. I found it very intriguing to follow certain people over the years and to see how they grew and found new friends and partners in life. I found it compelling that all the photos were taken on black and white film and that the people never smiled. They had a ‘neutral’ look which made it a little more mysterious. It was a great exhibition and I would definitely recommend.

I attended Tom Jones and Mike Schmudlach’s presentation on the creation of their book “People of the Big Voice: Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879-1942.” This presentation was a part of the Wisconsin Historical Society’s series in honor of American Indian Heritage Month.
I think the most fascinating part of this process was hearing about the ways in which this book came together following the narrative of Van Schaick’s documentation of the Ho-Chunk families’ lives. Not only is this book educational to those who do not identify as American Indian or understand Ho-Chunk culture, but it also seems to be a truthful representation of the community. I, for one, was unaware of all the nuances and symbolism in American Indian garb, for example. Upon Mike and Tom explaining certain examples, each photo told an infinitely deeper story to me. This understanding of such symbolism is a simple, yet impactful lens for someone like myself to have. I am grateful to have attended this presentation, for this exact reason. I think that photography as raw and historically significant as that which is displayed in this book carries a weight that is obvious, but moreover, it is the stories behind the photos which solidify this moments as significant in history.
This book is truly a testament to the importance of photography as a means of documenting history - particularly for groups like the American Indians, who have been oppressed and often forgotten in the larger narrative of American History.

I attended an art gallery held by a student organization on campus called We’re Better Than That (WBTT). This organization formed with the goal of educating and engaging the male population on campus on the topic of sexual assault as a humanitarian and gender-blind issue. I thas since developed into a co-ed club for this purpose, with specific groups for various communities on campus (e.g., multicultural groups, greek life, etc.). Their Fall Showcase displayed the work of about 20 different students. Specifically unique to this gallery, only about one fourth of the work shown had been created by students who identify as artists.
There was a range of mediums, from sculpture, to painting to photography; moreover, some work had been specifically created for the show, while others were in students’ portfolios. The fact that numerous artists already had work which embodied the spirit of this particular gallery indicates that the conversation takes place all across campus and across different mediums -- literally. A piece that spoke to me was one titled “#METOO,” which was a compilation of newspaper clippings about young men and women who were victims to sexual assault on college campuses. This artists is a member of WBTT, and used the opportunity to show her solidarity with young people like her who have been made voiceless through their experiences and the media's portrayal of them. Each element of the show, including how it was planned out very elegantly by the club president, spoke powerfully about a subject that very often becomes silenced by victims and non-victims alike.

In honor of American Indian Heritage Month and UW-Madison’s Wunk Sheek’s Native November, the Wisconsin Historical Society hosted three different events that celebrated the histories, cultures, and lives of Native people. The lecture I attended was about the process of People of the Big Voice coming together.

I learned so much in the hour we had in that auditorium; from the photographic recovering process to the community work and collaboration it takes to unearth so much history. Tom Jones mentioned how surprised others were at how quickly the book was formed and lineages aligned, but that it was because “we work collaboratively, it is not about the individual”.
It’s extremely refreshing to see a book with native language alongside English; as a bilingual student of a semitic language, I value the representation that that brings to the people who speak the Ho-Chunk language not only in the forward, but the names these communities of people carried with them. I did not know until this lecture that winnebago was a derogatory term, and that the Ho-Chunk name was reclaimed under Tom’s mother's term. So much of history is rewritten to disregard the facts that include Native people; these photos are a part of the reclaiming of the Ho-Chunk peoples history and the names that were taken from them.
The photographs presented were crisp and each held a story about the person in front of the camera. I’m glad to have gone to the talk and have purchased the book because the back stories behind each image were real and felt so tangible. Tom spoke about the way the film at some point would get re-touched by shellacking the glass and re-touching the faces to look incredibly smooth.

Through September 2nd-Sunday October 29th at the Overture Center of the Arts there was a photo show called Aisthetikos Cuvare(Aesthetic Curves) in the Playhouse Gallery. It was a group show with seven artists who, according to their show statement, “explore the subtle ways in which curves animate the aesthetics of our daily lives”. These artists came together from being in a black and white film photography class together earlier that year and applied as a group show.
The different styles of their photography and the environments they chose to photograph were prominent and individualistic. Even though their work was mixed up among one anothers, after going through a few times it is apparent the themes that were sticking together. One artist focused on the curves of the body; there were pieces that commented on the sexualization of the body, but also the innocence, by the same artist to note.
Another chose to photograph objects from nature and their movements when spun or that were oriented in ways that were confusing to understand what they were at first. Possibly my favorite piece was one by Delany Keshena which had people were stuck sitting with the longest. It was a blurry photo, with just enough light from the sky contrasting the shapes in the foreground to understand what it was if you stood there long enough. Standing too close, suggested a large cat was the true model, but the farther you stood back, the fuller the image became, showing two horses racing on a track with the sun blazing from behind.
Overall, I thought the medium of black and white film photography was the strongest part of the show connecting all the pieces together.

Reflection of Photography Talk: People of the Big Voice
I went to the photography talk by Tom Jones and Michael Schmudlach. They talked about their book People of the Big Voice. It is a book collecting photographs of Ho-Chunk families by Charles Van Schaick from 1879 to 1942.
I did not really know about Ho-Chunk families before the talk. Therefore, it was a great chance for me to know those group of people and the culture. The artists talked about the reservations of the photos. They also talked about the retouching skills used by Charles Van Schaick. That was interesting because I cannot really imagine how to do retouch on the negatives.
Most of the photos showed the whole body of the people. We could see the details of their clothing. Because those photos are in a large time period, it is interesting to observe the changes on their clothing style. It is obvious that after about 1910, national elements did not stand out a lot anymore. What made that more interesting is that, Charles Van Schaick took pictures of some people during their different ages. Then we could see the changes more clearly.
When we only see the pictures, we might easily ignore the stories behind the photos. Therefore I am so glad that I can hear the stories, relationships between characters and backgrounds of photos directly from the artists.

I went to the exhibition: The Pinhole Thing by Cameron Gillie at Memorial Union.
The show is relatively small in scale, so I focus more on the layouts and frames rather than the work.
The Pinhole Thing is a photo exhibition which shows works shoot by a pinhole camera. That camera is made by the photographer himself. Therefore, at the entrance of the exhibition, there is the pinhole camera standing there. Besides the camera, the artist put a table there to allow viewers leave feedbacks. Also, there is a short statement talking about his camera and basic information about his works and this show. All the photos are black and white photos. Those photos are framed with dark frames. Besides the frames which are in a unity, the matting style is also consistent and interesting. The artist uses two layers of matt. On the inner layer, he wrote down some information and signed on it.
The show room is relatively small and all the photos are on the four walls of the room. There are about 20 to 30 photos in total. Photos are grouped by contents. Although not all the frames are in the same style, the ones in a group have the same frames. The first group is photo of cameras. Three photos are in that group. The titles are the brands of the cameras in the photos. Two photos are aligned in a row and the third one is one the right.
After this group, there is a group of wood house pictures. One photo which shows the overall look of the house is printed large and lays in the middle. Three smaller photos which shows the details are on the sides of the large one. This group looks so harmonious based on this arrangement.
For the next group, there are three architecture pictures with are at the same size. All of those are 16*16 squares. These looks tidy and clear. It seems like this group is the most accordant one and it is my favorite way to arrange works.
Another interesting group is one with three photos. Unlike the one which has three equal-size photos, these three photos are different in sizes, contents and scales. The artist played with different skills on these three photos. He shows the possibility and variability of the pinhole photography. I think it works for me because the differences are obvious and attract viewers focus more on this group of photos.

Memorial Union hosted an Installment call Hyphenated by the Wisconsin Union Directorate. Hyphenated is an exhibition that explores the experiences of Americans with intersecting identities such as African-Americans or Chinese-Americans. This exhibition brings the conversations to campus by highlighting the stories of students who identify as "Hyphenated". Through this exhibition, their goal was to show the beauty in the diversity and backgrounds of the people of this campus. This exhibition was absolutely phenomenal. During the closing ceremony, there was a feeling of togetherness that was both overwhelming and comforting. This exhibition forced me to see that although I may feel out of place sometimes on this campus, there are many people here of different identities who can relate to what I feel and make this campus a place were I can feel I can feel accepted and at home. The stories of these students were so relatable and it kind of reminded me of the work that one of the students in our photography class. It was so easy for us to feel as though we are the only people experiencing certain things and these stories changed that perspective for me. I think this was a successful exhibition and I would love to see things like this done more.

I attended an exhibition in the Chazen Museum called Art & The Afterlife by Eric Adjetey Anang. Eric is a Ghanaian artist whose work has been controversial since he started. He is a 3rd generation Ghanaian design coffin maker. He has been determined to use these coffins to introduce a side of the Ghanian culture that many people do not understand and may be slightly skeptical about. Many people in Ghana do not even except his work as a form of art. His goal is to challenge viewers about the meaning of mortality and cultural identity. Art & The Afterlife is an installment that explores the afterlife and the funeral traditions of the Ga people of southern Ghana. These traditions include carving coffins into shapes that represent who a person was including their status and their profession. The coffins also incorporate specific colors that represent gender. Gold represents men and white represents women as well as twins. The coffin displayed was in the form of an eagle and I found this extremely beautiful but it also confused because in my experience coffins are something you find beautiful. I loved that it challenged me to think about mortality and find some kind of beauty in it. However, I was still kind of conflicted because I still found this to be a very private thing. I think going forward I would like to see how having some of these exhibition installed in Ghana affect the people there as well as the family members of the persons these coffins are for. Overall it was a very mentally challenging exhibit that forced me to think about a lot of things I wouldn't normally think about and I enjoyed being able to be there to witness his work in person.

I found an exhibition currently on display at the MMoCA in Madison, WI by artist Sonja Thomsen titled, In the Space of Elsewhere. Sonja is a Milwaukee based artist who uses photography and sculpture to create interactive exhibits in pre-determined locations. This show is a site-specific display that uses the architecture of the MMoCA to its advantage. While it is not a purely photographic show, it does incorporate abstract photographic imagery to aid in her aesthetic. The show makes use of light and shadow to alter the architecture of the building and create new and exciting perspectives for the audience to discover. Depending on the time of day, light coming into the building will refract differently on specific surfaces. The exhibit is in constant motion, and is ever-changing. Sonja explains that one of her missions in the specific work is, ­ “creating spaces that highlight the inaccessible. There should always be a place for wonder; it is a direct line to new knowledge.”

I am always fascinated by shows that make use of mixed-media, and how the use of material can help make your point known. Her use of abstract photography certainly adds a layer of wonder and excitement, in junction with her reflective surfaces hanging from the ceiling create a new and unsettling way of seeing a building that has interesting qualities already. Site-specific work tends to take careful planning and meticulous research in order to get it right. You can tell with this exhibition that Sonja did just that.

For my photo talk I attended Marissa Mackey’s artist lecture put on by the Colloquium in the Chazen Museum. Marissa talked extensively about her work and influences that have helped shape her photographic mindset. A lot of her early work tended to be travel-based, focusing on semi-political topics in places she would travel to. She explained that the work she was producing was not totally interesting her as it used to, and wanted to find new outlets to pursue. She began focusing her work on more abstract themes with a ‘fine-art’ based approach to photography. With the help of large format film, she started a series called Vehicle, where she would make use of the hood lights on her car to illuminate the subject that was in front of her. These nighttime shots would light up what is often concealed in darkness, making them known and exposed to the world. Marissa found herself fascinated by the mundane, and would often take road trips in the pursuit of finding these scenes to shoot. While she still is pursuing this project, she has taken up a new theme in her collection titled, Yonderlust, which makes use of mixed-media. In this new project, Marissa finds old photographs in yard sales and thrift stores, and alters them to create something new. In each photo, she takes push pins and in various ways and orientations, covers the subjects to create an abstract shape that often mimics the original orientation of the subject.

I found Marissa’s work to be interesting. She taught a Digital Imaging class that I had taken the semester before and had never seen any of her work. I had no idea she had such a diverse background in photography!

On October 29th, I went to CHELE ISAAC: THE UNDERSTORY at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. His work conveys an interesting and unique perspective that I rarely saw on other artists. One of his video works is about sea gulls with the dark and de-saturated pink background. From what I have seen, sea gulls represent a symbol of peace and calmness. However, through his frame, I felt disturbance and uneasiness. Perhaps it was the lifeless eyes on those sea gulls or the light shadows with dark and light pink backgrounds. I felt tense and uncomfortable. It is so interesting that Isaac could manipulate the viewers’ mood by making something appear quite the opposite to what it general delivers. I could even hear the giggle from Issac when he found out that the viewers got shocked or surprised by his wicked art work. Then I suddenly realized there might be a broader extent to what I had perceived as art forms. I always thought art was supposed to bring the viewers the satisfaction from the aesthetics like the summer breeze but now I began to question my previous perception. What exactly is art and what should art work deliver? Issac’s work obviously is not what I had described as art but his work was displayed in the museum where the public could go and see. Why there are still people going to see his work and enjoy being mocked by his rebellious and irony storytelling? I suppose that is what divided me and him apart because we shared different art philosophy. I am more inclined to arts forms like old oil paintings from medieval that represented the real life of different people and realistic scenery in a way that was aesthetically attractive and appealing, which I have been practicing during my photography work especially for portraitures. However, although I do not quite understand those abstract or seemly manipulating art work, I respect those work and appreciate the efforts those artists such as Chele Issace has put in their work.

On December 2nd, I went to Jaume Plensa: Talking Continents at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. It was a fantastic sculpture show. The one thing that surprised me the most was the combination of different letters on the bottom of those floating sculpts. As a native Mandarin speaker, I instantly recognized some Chinese characters in those and then I recalled an old Chinese saying that “there are no country borders in art”. People from different countries with different cultural backgrounds could come together and appreciate the efforts the artist has put and the stunning aesthetics of the art work. Another thing that I found interesting is the human shape of most sculpts in his show. The human shape sculpts were over the big giant spheres composited with different letters, which made me think about the human wisdom. One of those things that separate humans from the rest of animals is the extraordinary intelligence. Because of the intelligence, humans are capable to stand on the top of the food chain and develop different languages based on different cultures. Those different letters on the bottom represent the different cultures all over the world and is an abstraction of human intelligence. The last part of the show that I found fascinating is the composition of those sculptures in a way that are floating over the ground, creating a view of sophisticated shows, which resembles the instability and uncertainty of the human minds. Those shadows to me created a illustration that human’s influences (culture, actions to nature, etc.) would be carried on for a long period of time and have a dramatic effects at present and in the future. Although I have rare experience when comes to sculptures but as a photographer I could feel the crossover from the visual art point of view.

Artist Lecture 11/16
Tom Jones and Mike Schmudlach
Contributors to the book

While attending this lecture on People of the Big Voice I learned a lot about the work and cultural values that have been relayed through this book. The book utilizes photos captured by Charles Van Scoyk in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was the town photographer in Black River Falls. There were 1200 pictures discovered that show the people from the area.
In order to find out who the people were in the pictures and who their descendants are, the photos were extensively researched. Jones and Schmudlach used tribal records and censuses to obtain this information. The Ho-Chunk people were removed from their homes somewhere between seven and nine times by the government. They are now two separate tribes because of separations that occurred during this time. They tribe has trust land all over Wisconsin.
We also learned about techniques Van Scoyk used to edit pictures. His methods seem almost like a form of 19th century photoshop. He would retouch people’s faces in the photos which would add a halo around their head. He would shellac the back of the glass plate negative to remove the blemishes. Jones mentioned that Van Scoyk first took full body shots. This was because the clothing of the time was so important and essential to the person’s image. As clothing became less significant within the tribe, the photos became close ups focused on the person’s face. Jewelry was a sign of wealth at the time, so this was a focus of the photos as well.
This lecture was a great way to learn more about the Ho-Chunk tribe and their photographic history. The book seems fascinating and very informational.

For my photography lecture, I attended The Inscribed Studio Portrait as Self-Image: Photography a New-Self in Early 20th Century China given by Wu Hung, a professor of Chinese Art at the University of Chicago.
Before going to the lecture, I can honestly say I knew nothing and planned to not know anything about Chinese history of the 20th century; however, Hung’s lecture was genuinely very interesting.
He first began by showing and talking about self-portraits made by men of the time displaying their “queue-cuts,” hair cuts that became a movement in 20th century China where men were cutting their pony-tails that they had been growing out their whole lives. Because China, at the time, was needing to transition over to being a “modern-country” in the eyes of the global community, having more modern hair cuts like became a nation-wide policy, forcing men to go through a transition of identity. Part of this transition was the of taking a self-portrait to commemorate with their family, peers, and selves, the men would take photos or have photos of them taken as a “before” with a full-body portrait and a mirror, displaying both their pony-tail and face as a reflection of who they were.
There were two things that consistently stood out with these self-portraits: the mirror and an inscription on the back of the photograph done by the sitter in the photo. This is what gave way to the “I-portrait,” the main idea of Hung’s lecture. The I-portrait was where the men inscribed, whether through poetry or free-write, their personal thoughts and feelings on the back of the photograph. This added layer of inscription reconfigured the representation of reality in China at the time of masculine identity and was a new form of expression for men going through and change in identity.

For my photography show, I went to the Happy Birthday, Mr. Hockney show at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. The show, featuring David Hockney’s self-portraits and photograph collection, was held in honor of his eightieth birthday. According to the Getty Museum’s website, the exhibit featured “…self-portraits made over the past sixty-five years and key photographs from the 1980s that investigate time and perspective,” particularly with his collage-style of taking dozens of photos of one space, and placing them in a way which creates a cohesive image.
David Hockey is a British-born painter and photographer who attended the Royal College of Art in London. After moving to Los Angeles and splitting time between the UK and the United States, he created painting, photographs, print-making, set-designing, and iPad drawings influenced by both Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.
At the show, the photography portion of the exhibit featured a walk-through in chronological order of Hockney’s works. What was interesting about this was, not only did you get to see the change in style that Hockey displayed over the years, but the progression of camera technology, as it started out with polaroid collages, ending with digital prints. His use of polaroid photographs was particularly interesting with his photograph, “Yellow Chair,” which were dozens of detail shots of a yellow chair that cohesively created the full image of a chair. Hockey’s extreme attention to detail and ability to see a scene at such a broken-down level was interesting.
This was displayed prominently in the final photograph of the exhibit, Pearblossom Highway, a photo collage of 47 x 64 inches. The absolute masterpiece had its own wall, with an incredible depiction of the various shade of blue the sky offered and of the expansive highway landscape. I had seen images online of the collage before, but having the ability to see each individual photo that was laid in-person made it even more impressive.

Rashaad Newsome: Icon
On display on the second floor of the Madison Museum of Contemporary is Rashaad Newsome’s work Icon which consists of four videos of vogue dance performances (Untitled (2008), Untitled—New Way (2009), ICON (2014), Stop Playing in My Face (2016)). Voguing originated from African-American drag performers in the 1960’s, whom were inspired by the angular and rigid, arm, leg, and body positions in Vogue Fashion Magazine. In the 1970’s the African-American and Latino LGTBQ community in Harlem, New York expanded voguing into a style of dance. Newsome’s Icon is a tribute to bring attention to these dancers and to recognize them as the creators due to Madonna’s appropriation of voguing for her 1980’s music video “Vogue”. Moreover, including Newsome’s work in art museums, such as MMOCA, it has established voguing into the discourse of institutionally recognized art.
I enjoyed Newsome’ work and appreciated the way he chose to address the issue of cultural appropriate through giving space back to the communities that created voguing. I went and watching “Icon” twice, the first time with my mother and grandmother. All three of us thought the work was high-energy, engaging, and had factors of skill involved (performative and digital rendering). Newsome created digital backdrops of architectural spaces, with luxury items such as fancy cars, gold chains, and gemstones, the artist created a space for the dancers to perform and a multisensorial experience for viewers . During the course of the videos, other viewers came in and left the room rather quickly, I feel as if those viewers did not give the work enough time to show its complexity, one man got up and left after the word “bitch” was said during, “Stop Playing in my Face”. I watched Madonna’s video for the first time after viewing Newsome’s Icon. The feel way very different and felt more like she was selling her sexuality and beauty. Madonna turned voguing into something more digestible for mainstream America and stripped it of emotion and context.
“Icon” is both a work of art and a documentation of a historically overlooked art form in a way that also bring about issues of appropriation in a positive light that give integrity and power back to the original creators.

Event Write-Up
Last Thursday I attended Tom Jones and Michael Schmudlach’s talk about their book “People of the Big Voice- Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families” at the Wisconsin State Historical Society. The pictures in the book were taken by Charles Van Schaick, a photographer in Black River Falls Wisconsin, between the years 1879-1942. 1,200 of Schaick’s negatives were found in his studio and they were donated to Jackson County. The portraits are not only beautiful, but each individual person has a sense of agency and a multifaceted identity conveyed. The photographs were commissioned by Ho-Chunk families for themselves, to share with relatives, or in some cases as matchmaking photos for arranged marriages.
Jones and Schmudlach were able to identify all the Ho-Chunk and English names of the people in the images through interviewing tribal elders and researching documents, such as censuses from when the Ho-Chunk people were forcefully removed from their homes up to nine different times by the United States Government. The book is also unique because it is the first book published by the Wisconsin Historical Society in two languages, both English and Ho-Chunk.
Van Schaick had a tendency to re-touch people’s faces to make them appear younger, which also created a halo effect around the heads. In the earlier images, Van Schaick took full-body photographs, but over time perhaps because clothing became more western he zoomed in closer to people’s faces. He used backdrops that resembled home interiors or floral patterns, and used props in some of his images. The book also includes some photographs of Ho-Chunk ceremonies, and images of people who suffered from smallpox.
“People of the Big Voice” is a phenomenal documentation of history that shows the resilience and beauty of the Ho-Chunk nation and their determination to return to their homeland and continue living in Wisconsin today. Jones stated that this book was able to be completed in a two year time frame because the work was done collaboratively, and it was never about the individual.

I am so glad that I had the opportunity during this semester to listen to Tom’s talk of his new book People of the Big Voice, in which they talked about all sorts of information of Ho-Chunk’s history and traditions. Both photos and speaker’s explanation were inspiring and impressive. And I really want to share my thoughts here.
To start with the photographs showed at the talk, I was amazed at their historical value and these photos led me to find more interests in the field of documentary photography.
I remember when I first started in photography, I found myself barely interested in documentary photography. I’ve always considered documentary photography a type that showed nothing of the mind of photographers. There was no art to me in documentary photography. However, after seeing so many photos of Ho-Chunk families in the lecture, I started to understand and appreciate the beauty and value of these documentary photographs. They maintained the traditional clothes, which could rarely be found today, of Ho-Chunk families during the 18th – 19th century. These photos also enabled younger generations of Ho-Chunk families to learn traditions and cultures from those pictures. People who are not from the Ho-Chunk culture, like me, could also have chance to see the beauty of this culture.
After seeing photographer Charles Van Schaick’s work, which he took photos of the same person or the same family through their lifetime, I was impressed by the power of time and also the power of photographs. I understood that photography was really an art of time. It was not only about capturing a moment at a right time but also about showing a process to people. It could store more than a moment. It stored a huge amount of time and could store stores of people’s life.
Another aspect that impressed me of Tom’s lecture was how much work he and his co-authors had done to figure out the family relationship from those photos. The large amount of research they’ve done showed me that photographers were powerful researchers too. And photography itself sometimes was science as well. I was inspired by their work and I wished one day I could start a long research like this too. Maybe I would spend few years studying human bodies and all kinds of diseases that result in deformation of human bodies in order to deepen my understanding and creation of my Nudes project.
Finally, I really appreciate I had this chance to be in this talk and learned a bunch new things from Tom and his friends. I believed that I would have a great time reading their book too.

Disruptive Perspectives explores gender, sexuality, identity—highlighting artists who challenge binary categorizations and attempt to portray a broader range of identification within/beyond these boxes. Some of the work felt highly intimate, showing the viewer a momentary window into the life (and identity) of the subject, sometimes the artists themselves. Others images were more straight documentary (as were their titles). Still others managed both exquisitely.
The first category is exemplified by the work of Zachary Drucker and Rhys Ernst, who’s contribution to the show is a series documenting their relationship as each transitioned genders—one male-to-female, the other female-to-male. The images come off as though they could comfortably exist in either or both artist’s Facebook photo collections. They are candid, unpretentiously-captured images which document a consistent affection through the flow of a dual transition. The names attached (eg. “Relationship #23 (The Longest Day of the Year)”) maintain this feeling of simple, intimate documentation.
The work of Jess T. Dugan fits in the second group. Her work in the show simply and beautifully documents trans individuals over the age of 50, a group who may get even less visibility and consideration than the trans community generally (or at least before the arrival of Amazon’s series Transparent, though the namesake elder trans character there is played by a cismale—Jeffrey Tambor). Dugan captures her subjects here as strong individuals, which aligns well with her aim to recognize the sacrifices they made.
The final artist I’ll mention brought together the intimacy and documentary qualities of the other work, along with what was, for me, the strongest visual statement of the show. Laurence Rasti documented homosexual couples in Iran, but obscures their identities using things like colorful patterned sheets, flowers, trees, and balloons. Without the context, one could almost mistake these for outtakes from engagement or wedding photos, where the subjects hadn’t yet gotten in place for the final, unobscured shot. Additionally, Rasti’s work is the most overtly political of the whole show, with the series title “Il n’y a pas d’homosexuels en Iran (There are No Homosexuals in Iran)”, which is a direct quotation of then-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad from 2007. Homosexuality is a crime punishable by death in Iran. Thus the artful shrouding of Rasti’s subjects’ identities.